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The Daily Mail reports that thousands of horses—perhaps as many as one hundred thousand—are being abandoned in Ireland as a result of the financial crisis there. Many are brought by their owners to common grazing grounds, such as Dunsink tip near Dublin, and left to fend for themselves. Some too weak to survive have had to be euthanized by animal welfare workers. To prevent a collapse of the Irish currency, the government has imposed stiff austerity measures that are expected to result in a ten percent reduction in disposable income for the middle class and even deeper cuts for lower income families. This, after boom years when Ireland posted the highest annual GDP in the western world. During those years, workers of all classes were financially able to accumulate more goods. And more horses. Certainly more horses. For a people where the horse has been an integral part of family life since ancient times, certainly more horses. Some lived in the house garden, some in fenced-off building sites, some on common land. And now, many owners can neither feed nor care for them. More details are available at Daily Mail Reporter.December 22, 2010

Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon won the National Book Award for Fiction last month. The book’s title is taken from the name of a horse at a seedy, fictional racetrack in West Virginia. As a novelist, Jaimy Gordon has been championed by a few during her years of obscurity, and was, as the New York Times acknowleges in their review, barely noticed by that august publication at all. The Times admits, however, that “this novel is so assured, exotic and uncategorizable, with such an unlikely provenance, that it arrives as an incontrovertible winner, a bona fide bolt from the blue. The story emerges from that hidden world—the backstretch of the racetrack—unknown to even most horse enthusiasts. It is authoritatively drawn by the author with imaginative characters and inspired dialog. The book is divided into four horseraces, the intrigue deriving not so much from the question of which horse will win but from murkier issues such as the rules of claiming races and the archane culture of the backstretch. Read more in Janet Maslin’s column in the New York Times.December 14, 2010

Huntsman Richard Down of the Quantock Hills staghounds has been convicted for a second time under the Hunting Act. He was convicted for hunting a wild mammal with more than two dogs. Down had three. Down’s first conviction was in 2007 when he was found guilty of chasing deer with hounds. In the five years since the Act came into effect, only four individuals have been convicted for hunting. Down’s latest conviction was based on video footage shot by The League Against Cruel Sports. Down claimed in his defense that he was looking for the stag, and more than two hounds are allowed for that phase of the hunt. Down, an experienced huntsman for twenty-one years, claimed that once the stag was found, he could not stop the hounds. The judge decided that Down could have called them back and fined him 2,920 pounds. For more details, read the BBC News story.

The ballot measure to make hunting a constitutional right was defeated by Arizona voters. Poor communication among pro-hunting groups, confusing language in the legislation, and large expenditures by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) opposing the bill were cited as reasons for the measure’s defeat. A single cash donation by HSUS of $250,000 to the “No on 109” group represented more money than the total dollars raised by proponents of the bill. Even hunters were confused by the language and weren’t certain which way to vote. Sponsors of the bill realize they need to do a better job of communicating in the future. Read Matt Maxon’s article in the Yuma Sun for more.November 16, 2010

Notwithstanding the Prime Minister’s promise of a free vote in Parliament on the repeal of the Hunting Bill, the issue has been eclipsed by the more pressing problems of the British economy. Despite Countryside Alliance head Alice Barnard’s recent statements urging that Prime Minister David Cameron “right a great wrong” by overturning the ban, the Alliance has decided against making the repeal a priority issue at this time. One has to wonder if concern over the economy is just a smoke screen for backing away from the fight to repeal. The Telegraph states “that only a minority of MPs—253 out of 650—are committed to repealing the Act with at least 22 Conservative MPs among more than 300 who would vote against repealing the law.” Even amongst Tories—the constituency most strongly supportive of hunting—support for repeal is dwindling. For more details, read Andrew Hough’s article.

Were he alive today, famous cavalry officer General George Patton would be appalled that a high school student in his old home town could be suspended for riding a horse to school. Hamilton-Wenham High School is, after all, in General Patton’s old hunting country, home to the Myopia Hunt since 1882. High school senior Dan DePaolis asked his parents if he could ride their horse to school for Spirit Week. He dressed as a knight and had a friend and classmate act as his squire. The classmate walked on foot, holding the horse by the bridle, but the trio was allegedly accosted in the school parking lot by the assistant principal. The school official told DePaolis to get off the horse and remove the animal from the school grounds. DePaolis’s father, who was nearby to supervise the boys and the horse asked what the problem was. The assistant principal allegedly said that bringing the horse onto school property was the equivalent of bringing in a loaded firearm. Despite the fact that DePaolis was a good student who had never before been in trouble, he was suspended for two days and his friend was suspended for one day as an accomplice. Neither was allowed to attend the school dance on Halloween weekend. Many in that horsey community have voiced their support for the DePaolis family. See a video of Dan DePaolis on YouTube. Read more details in Sam Trepani’s article in the Hamilton-Wenham Chronicle.November 2, 2010

Irish foxhunters, shattered by legislation earlier this year banning the 154-year-old Ward Union Staghounds, have been holding their collective breath for the next shoe to fall. The Green Party, instrumental in the staghound ban, were pushing additional legislation that would require all dog breeding establishments with five or more breeding bitches to be licensed and open to inspection by government department officials. Effective lobbying, however, by HAI and FACE—multinational pro-hunting groups—has succeeded in securing a number of concessions for hunt kennels. Records of tattoos and microchipping will be kept in a HAI/FACE central database, and license fees specified in the bill will not apply to hunt kennels. Green Party Minister John Gormley had promised exemptions for hunt kennels but did not deliver on an earlier draft of the bill. RISE! (Rural Ireland Says Enough!) was also instrumental in defending hunting against Green Party pressure. More details available in Hounds magazine, October 2010.October 30, 2010

Horses will be required to wear diapers in order to march in the Halloween Parade in Davenport, Iowa this year. “Even though horses have long been staged at the rear of the parade, their droppings sometimes become a mine hazard to those leaving the parade route afterward,” says the Quad City Times. According to the newspaper report, the street sweeper who follows the parade route can’t quite make the streets safe enough for the populace. To FHL’s thinking, if horse manure was the most undesirable substance found on the city’s streets, Davenport would be at the top of every list for the Most Livable City. Nancy Hicks has been riding her horse in the Halloween and Saint Patrick’s Day parades for thirty years, and she’s not about to put a diaper on her horse. “Making us put diapers on our horses could be a disaster,” she said. “To get a horse to even wear a diaper would take months. Besides, there were only four horses in the parade last year…. You just don’t take a riding horse and put a diaper on it.” Foxhunters who ride their horses in the parade are fortunate. They are already equipped with the required “plain, gold, safety pins.” Read Barb Ickes article for more information.

Alice Barnard, 33, has taken over the reins of Britain’s Countryside Alliance. She is not only the first woman to lead the organization that boasts a membership of 100,000, but the youngest to do so. In a recent interview, Barnard urged Prime Minister Cameron to make good on his promise to hold a free vote within this Parliament and before the next general election on the repeal of the despised 2004 Hunting Act. “The Act just hasn’t worked,” she said. She went on to say that it wasn’t based on evidence, but rather on a class attack by those trying to punish the toffs. “But hunting has never been about that,” she said. As we already noted in an earlier FHL article, former Prime Minister Tony Blair in his recent memoir expressed regret at having pushed for the passage of the Hunting Act during his term. “Blair got it all wrong,” said Barnard, referring to Blair’s turn-about, “and it is just a shame that he didn’t have his Damascan moment at the right time.” Barnard is a rider since childhood and a former Master of the Cambridge University Drag Hunt, a foot pack of bloodhounds. She gave up a successful and well-paid career in corporate sales to take over her new post. See Rosa Prince’s article in the Telegraph for more.October 6, 2010

The secret of the Eastern coyote was revealed just this year when scientists discovered wolf DNA in coyotes living in the U.S. Northeast. The scientists hypothesize that the Western coyotes mated with wolves as they migrated eastward north of the Great Lakes across Canada during the last century. The finding helps to explain why the Eastern coyotes are larger than their Western cousins, and why the colors of their coats vary—a predictable result of an out-cross. That the Eastern coyotes are more adept at deer hunting than their Western forebears is another observation that supports the hypothesis. The Western coyote tends to restrict its hunting to smaller game like voles and rabbits. Evidence that the animals thought for decades to be coyotes are in fact coyote-wolf hybrids was released by two research teams. Roland W. Kays, curator of mammals at the New York State Museum, led a team that studied coyotes from New Jersey to Maine. Jonathan Way, wildlife biologist with the Eastern Coyote Research consulting firm, and his colleagues studied coyotes around Cape Cod and Boston. Both teams published their papers independently. For more, see Carol Kaesuk Yoon’s September 27 article in the New York Times.October 3, 2010